I have seen many posts where there is an image of God or Yeshua and pointed out that this is not really allowed. Sometimes I get the response that it is acceptable because it is “church art”.
So, is church art different from images?
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I think the best way to settle this is to look at the 2nd Commandment and see what God says (CJB):
You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.
I don’t know about you, but this seems pretty clear to me.
Yet even within Judaism, which does not make any three-dimensional images (i.e., statues or busts), two-dimensional images of biblical scenes, animals, and biblical persons (such as Moses) have been seen in synagogues as far back as the 3rd century AD.
The 2nd Commandment goes a little further saying that we should not bow down to or pray to these images, which is never done in Judaism, but I regret to say in most any Catholic Church I have ever been in- and I’ve been in a lot of them having traveled to many countries and throughout the USA- I see three-dimensional images and people bowing down and praying to them.
I have been told that they aren’t really “praying” to them but simply asking them to intercede with Jesus to intercede with God. Funny… the Catholic Church pretty much says Jesus is God, so how do you intercede with yourself? And Jesus said that the only way to the father is through him (John 14:6), so again- why go to anyone else?
And isn’t praying asking for something? And when you ask for something isn’t that praying?
I have no definitive answer other than the safest thing to do is not make any images of anything, ever. That way there can’t be confusion, but on the other hand, people learn from three different types of input: visual (65%), aural (30%) and tactile (5%). Since the vast majority of people learn through visual stimulation then to help get the word out, it seems to make sense that some sort of artwork would be helpful.
(My personal opinion is that 100% of the people learn best by doing)
I doubt that we will never be without some form of artwork relating to religion so maybe we can just settle with church art should be restricted to biblical scenes that allow for representation of animals, background, and people who are involved in an activity spoken about in the Bible, but absolutely no images of any kind of God or Messiah.
Images showing what the idols of pagan religions looked like as part of a learning experience would be okay, as long as they are just that- part of a lesson to introduce what those idols looked like to teach us how to recognize them.
What do you think? I’d like to know your opinion on this.
That’s it for this week. Thank you for being here and please comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Salom!